Thursday, June 27, 2013

The Juarez Bullring

Long before the building of the Plaza Monumental that was torn down, a simpler bullring existed in Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, called the Balderas that still stands to this date. Far from an elaborate structure, this circular stadium attracted fans from both sides of the border for a number of years and still does.

The main purpose of the arena was of course for bullfighting,. Many top Mexicans tars appeared there, including Pepe Luis Vazquez, Luis Procuna, Gregorio Garcia, Leopoldo Ramos, Lorenzo Garza, Eduardo Liceaga, David Liceaga, Carlos Arruza, Manuel Capetillo, Fermin Rivera, Eduardo Solorzano and El Soldado were some of them.

The arena also housed outdoor wrestling and boxing cards. aside from the regional stars in these fields, various people from Arizona and Texas also came down.

Vincent Lopez, who was a regular in Arizona in the 1940s, but usually on the undercard, became a top draw in this Mexican city. While he usually lost in Phoenix and Tucson , he tended to win big in Juarez.

Paavo Katonan, a longtime wrestling attraction in the California/Arizona , also made brief appearances in Juarez within this bullring.